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February 13, 2018 10:43 AM Subscribe
I have been gifted with a 5 kg (11 lb) block of dark coating chocolate.
What the heck should I do with it?
The person who gave it to me knows that I love to bake and cook and, on seeing this, thought it would be hilarious (and useful) to give me. It is not 'baking chocolate' or 'eating chocolate' - it's for coating - and I have never used this stuff before.
I would rate my skill at baking/cooking as somewhere in the "adventurous" range. In my home, I have all the usual kitchen equipment and supplies, as well as a few fancier things. I'd love to make something(s) that I can take to work and share with the person who gave it to me - along with other team members - or that I can make in bulk, freeze, and share randomly in the future.
The link above gives some info about the product, in case that's important. I assume cake pops are a possibility here, though I've never made them, but is there anything else that would be fancy and fun and delicious? Any recipes you'd like to share? I am generally not a huge fan of dark chocolate, so if you have recipes that will incorporate other flavours, too, that'd be swell!
The person who gave it to me knows that I love to bake and cook and, on seeing this, thought it would be hilarious (and useful) to give me. It is not 'baking chocolate' or 'eating chocolate' - it's for coating - and I have never used this stuff before.
I would rate my skill at baking/cooking as somewhere in the "adventurous" range. In my home, I have all the usual kitchen equipment and supplies, as well as a few fancier things. I'd love to make something(s) that I can take to work and share with the person who gave it to me - along with other team members - or that I can make in bulk, freeze, and share randomly in the future.
The link above gives some info about the product, in case that's important. I assume cake pops are a possibility here, though I've never made them, but is there anything else that would be fancy and fun and delicious? Any recipes you'd like to share? I am generally not a huge fan of dark chocolate, so if you have recipes that will incorporate other flavours, too, that'd be swell!
Best answer: It just has a different fat in it than regular chocolate, which has cocoa butter. If you'd rather use it for baking or eating, you should be able to. Unless it's replaced with like crisco or something, in which case you may actually not want to eat it straight.
Self link, me and my partner recently wrote a book on what to do with chocolate in the kitchen and we're putting all the recipes up online over the course of this year.
posted by aniola at 11:05 AM on February 13, 2018 [2 favorites]
Self link, me and my partner recently wrote a book on what to do with chocolate in the kitchen and we're putting all the recipes up online over the course of this year.
posted by aniola at 11:05 AM on February 13, 2018 [2 favorites]
Best answer: Barks! Mix in roughly chopped potato chips, or pretzels, or mint candies, or almonds; spread on parchment in a 9x11; let cool into deliciousness. Or marshmallows and graham cracker chunks? Coconut and caramel? Lots of yummy options.
posted by Bardolph at 11:12 AM on February 13, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by Bardolph at 11:12 AM on February 13, 2018 [2 favorites]
Best answer: Buy (or check your library--many public libraries have baking molds available for lending) the giant novelty mold most personally hilarious to you. Marvel at your 11lb chocolate lego minifig. Or make skulls for all your friends.
posted by phunniemee at 11:20 AM on February 13, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by phunniemee at 11:20 AM on February 13, 2018 [1 favorite]
Best answer: This is also called summer coating, because by replacing part or all of the cocoa butter with a vegetable fat that melts at a higher temperature, it won't melt at as low a temperature as real chocolate. So now you can make candies even in hot weather, using a good summer coating.
Think of it as a 5kg chocolate chip, because yes, many brands of chocolate chips replace part of the cocoa butter with vegetable fat for the same reason: to keep the chips from melting during shipment and storage in hot weather.
The cheap stuff, which you find in grocery stores, is awful. But quality summer coating (and this looks to be some of the good stuff) has a flavor and texture nearly indistinguishable from real chocolate. Ordinary people generally don't notice the difference at all. Go ahead and chunk it and/or melt it for baking, making dips, icings and glazes, mixing into ice cream, etc. If you're feeling inventive, you can melt it and paint it on cupcake liners to make chocolate dessert cups. You can buy molds very inexpensively to mold little shooter cups, candies, and such. I like to paint molds with it, put them in the fridge to chill, fill them with softened ice cream, seal them with more melted coating, then freeze, unmold and store. Serve everyone their own individual molded ice cream-filled dessert.
Store it in a dry, reasonably coolish place and it'll keep for practically forever.
posted by Lunaloon at 11:49 AM on February 13, 2018 [2 favorites]
Think of it as a 5kg chocolate chip, because yes, many brands of chocolate chips replace part of the cocoa butter with vegetable fat for the same reason: to keep the chips from melting during shipment and storage in hot weather.
The cheap stuff, which you find in grocery stores, is awful. But quality summer coating (and this looks to be some of the good stuff) has a flavor and texture nearly indistinguishable from real chocolate. Ordinary people generally don't notice the difference at all. Go ahead and chunk it and/or melt it for baking, making dips, icings and glazes, mixing into ice cream, etc. If you're feeling inventive, you can melt it and paint it on cupcake liners to make chocolate dessert cups. You can buy molds very inexpensively to mold little shooter cups, candies, and such. I like to paint molds with it, put them in the fridge to chill, fill them with softened ice cream, seal them with more melted coating, then freeze, unmold and store. Serve everyone their own individual molded ice cream-filled dessert.
Store it in a dry, reasonably coolish place and it'll keep for practically forever.
posted by Lunaloon at 11:49 AM on February 13, 2018 [2 favorites]
Best answer: mix up some peanut butter filling (smooth peanut butter + powdered sugar + vanilla.)
Either dip balls of this; or, for a fancier look, make molded candies of it. Super easy, keeps in the fridge (probably freezes nicely too but might sweat a bit when thawed), and everyone is freaking stoked to get homemade fancy peanut butter "truffles".
posted by fingersandtoes at 12:55 PM on February 13, 2018
Either dip balls of this; or, for a fancier look, make molded candies of it. Super easy, keeps in the fridge (probably freezes nicely too but might sweat a bit when thawed), and everyone is freaking stoked to get homemade fancy peanut butter "truffles".
posted by fingersandtoes at 12:55 PM on February 13, 2018
Best answer: For about $7 Costco sells a giant plastic jar of sourdough pretzels. Coating them is fun and chocolate intensive. Read up on easy nuking, get parchment paper and skewers to dip with. They are delicious.
posted by Oyéah at 4:59 PM on February 13, 2018
posted by Oyéah at 4:59 PM on February 13, 2018
Best answer: The most delicious sweet thing I know how to make is orangettes. It's probably my favourite sweet thing in the world, and we limit ourselves to making it once a year at Christmas, because to have it more often would risk diluting my love for it. The coolest thing about orangettes is that you make them from orange peel, so your leftovers are just beautiful peeled oranges. It also makes your house smell magnificent. We follow this recipe, except instead of her final step of tossing the orangettes in sugar, we coat them in dark chocolate. It's unbelievable, and the best thing I can think of to do with coating chocolate.
Another great option is mendiants. Simple with lots of scope for variety.
posted by distorte at 7:07 AM on February 14, 2018 [2 favorites]
Another great option is mendiants. Simple with lots of scope for variety.
posted by distorte at 7:07 AM on February 14, 2018 [2 favorites]
Best answer: I love dark chocolate coated Ritz crackers.
posted by WeekendJen at 11:15 AM on February 14, 2018
posted by WeekendJen at 11:15 AM on February 14, 2018
Response by poster: Thanks all! I marked everything as a 'best answer' because I have enough chocolate that I intend to try ALL of these suggestions in the coming weeks!
posted by VioletU at 10:00 AM on February 15, 2018
posted by VioletU at 10:00 AM on February 15, 2018
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by dywypi at 10:50 AM on February 13, 2018 [4 favorites]